Date:         Wed, 10 Apr 1996 13:49:39 -0400
From: LLDEFNY@AOL.COM
Subject:      CA Sup. Court Rejects Religious Defense To Laws Barring Housing
              Discrimination

LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 1996

Contacts:
Clyde Wadsworth, Esq.
415-493-9300

Jon W. Davidson, Esq.
213-937-2728,ext. 28

California Supreme Court Rejects Religious Defense
To Laws Barring Housing Discrimination Against Unmarried Couples
_________________________________________

(LOS ANGELES, Tuesday, April 9, 1996) -- Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund hailed today's decision by the California Supreme Court in Smith v. Fair
Employment and Housing Commission rejecting a landlord's claim that state
civil rights laws violated her rights to free exercise of religion. The court
ruled that state laws forbidding housing discrimination based on marital
status may be enforced against a landlord who told an unmarried couple that
she would not rent them a vacant apartment in the complexes she owns but does
not live, based on the landlord's belief that sex outside of marriage, and
"facilitating" such sex,  is sinful.

"While this case involved a heterosexual couple, the court's decision is
particularly important to lesbians and gay men," said Clyde Wadsworth, a
cooperating attorney for Lambda from San Francisco who was the principal
author of an amicus brief filed in the case on behalf of Lambda, the National
Center for Lesbian Rights, and Lawyers for Human Rights - the Lesbian and Gay
Bar Association of Los Angeles.  "Similar religious freedom claims have been
raised across the country in attempts to justify housing and employment
discrimination against lesbians and gay men, despite state and local laws
forbidding such discrimination.  The court's ruling makes clear that the
state has no interest in sanctioning housing discrimination, even if
purportedly rooted in religion."

Lambda Supervising Attorney Jon W. Davidson agreed: "A ruling in the
landlord's favor would have given California's property owners a license to
discriminate against lesbians, gay men, and others who could not conform to a
landlord's religious views, no matter how discriminatory those views might
be.  It was not long ago that African-Americans were denied housing and
education based on a religious belief that integration was against God's
plan.  The California Supreme Court's ruling is a landmark in affirming the
importance of anti-discrimination laws and refusing to open the Pandora's box
of religious-based exemptions to such laws."
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